1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for optical excitation/detection including an arrayed plurality of photodetectors and photoemitters and, in particular, to such a device manufactured using fluidic self-assembly techniques.
2. Description of Related Art
Detector arrays (i.e., devices comprising an arrayed plurality of photodetectors) can be fabricated using well known complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques. Such arrays are typically of very high quality, exhibit low noise and are inexpensive to produce What is lacking with conventional CMOS fabrication techniques for such devices is a way of easily incorporating a plurality of light emitting devices (for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes, or other type photoemitters) into the CMOS array detector device. For example, standard solid state light emitting devices (like LEDs) are difficult to incorporate onto a CMOS detector array because the process for solid state LED photoemitter fabrication is incompatible with the CMOS fabrication process used to form the photodetectors. The incompatibility generally speaking, precludes the co-development of CMOS photodetectors and solid state LED photoemitters on the same substrate. It is further recognized that solid state photoemitter light sources are generally edge-emitters. The edge-emitter configuration requires that the semiconductor substrate for the LED (that is generally built by layering-up using planar processes to form the photoemitter) be diced and placed on edge when assembled with the CMOS photodetectors
What is needed is a device for optical excitation/detection, and a method for making such a device, that includes an arrayed plurality of photodetectors and separately formed photo emitters